Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Mob Terror, State
Terror and Bomb Terror

State Terror and the Impunity it
enjoys, Mob Terror and the Impunity Hindutva mobs enjoy in the wake of
discourse or terrorism needs to be exposed. The discourse on terrorism has
allowed innocent members of minority community, adivasis, Dalits be
attacked and brutalised by the State.

Citizens for Justice and Peace
and Communalism Combat has organised this two day convention and has
brought together delegation from Karnataka, Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Malegaon
and Nagpur.

Maulana Hameed Azhari,
Malegaon:

Thanks CJP for giving this
platform for oppressed people.

Malegaon with a population of
7,00,000 is 60% Muslim and that is our problem is that since Muslims are
in majority thatÂ’s why we are suppressed. That is our conclusion 60 years
after Independence. We have fought in the national movement but yet in
every Police films in the 60Â’s, 70Â’s, 80Â’s, 90Â’s, the victim is a Muslim.

Then on September 08, 2006 bomb
blasts in Malegaon occurred only due to negligence by police.

These blasts are similar to the
blasts that occurred in Jalna and Prabhani. The same police that was
guilty of negligence was given the initial investigation into the blasts
in Maharashtra. For those who do not know, these locales in Maharashtra
are places where bomb blasts had taken place inside Masques in 2004. But
police and ATS are not ready to investigate on this line and they believe
these blasts were handiwork of Muslims. Believing this was the handiwork
of Muslims they are investigating in only one direction and are arresting
innocent Muslim youths and trying to cover up the whole conspiracy.

Whoever is arrested until today
is innocent. One of those accused, Shafi was under their detention from
August 06 and one month before and the other one was living in a village
550 kmtrs away from Malegaon in Yewatmal.

Malegaon
bomb blast actually is a well-hatched conspiracy and no person arrested is
actually involved in this. It is because of this people of Malegaon are
demanding for CBI inquiry of the whole episode from the day one so that
the real culprits and the conspirator is made public. We believe without
this a lasting peace in Maharashtra is not possible.

With 73% Muslim population in a
6 lakh city, always has nationalist Muslims who fought for freedom and who
had always denied the two-nation theory. They even rejected Muslim League
despite being largely Muslim populated area. Muslims in the handloom
business had actively participated in the freedom struggle.

Now handlooms are replaced by
powerlooms but because this is a Muslim majority town the governments
always ignored it and basic civic rights and amenities.

The more painful was the fact
that this city was always in the eyes of the communal forces and
immediately after independence military has been called up in the name of
riot on the occasion of Eid to target Muslims but they failed in their
attempt because of the sagacity of locals.

An example is the 2001 violence
of police firing. Riots took place in a non-Muslim area where hundreds of
properties belonging to Muslims were looted and burned and though police
claim they had fired around 24 rounds, not a single person was even
injured. On the other hand 13 Muslims died in police firing in the same
riot.

We had met the top leadership
and asserted that innocents should not be targeted and we have some clear
evidence of the innocence of those who have been arrested by police. Our
panel on Malegaon will show this. Even the relatives of those killed in
the blast are not ready to believe that the persons who have been arrested
have anything to do with the blast.

We believe that if the real
culprits of the blast will not be booked they will continue to master mind
such blasts elsewhere in the country and foment communal hatred.

Advocate Wahane:

I come from Nagpur. The recent
ghastly incident took place at Khairanjali, 90 kms away from Nagpur. 181
homes consisting of 791 people, just 3 homes belonging to Buddhists, one
of them is the family of Bhotmange. Years of harassment by fellow
villagers, police never took any action against this harassment, never
registered any cases. As recently as 3rd September Â‘06
relatives approached the police for complaint but the complaint was never
registered, if the complaint would have been registered at that time, the
Khairanjali incident might have been avoided.

But ultimately on 29th
September 2006 they were brutally killed. Bhotmange himself went to the
police station on the same day. But the police declined to register the
case, he went on 30th again. Here he came to know that a body
with Priyanka marked on her hand (his daughter) had been found near the
river. Post mortem report carried falsehoods. Eyewitness account says that
injuries were there on the private parts of the deadbodies, but the post
mortem report do not say anything about this.

The Bhandara SP also supported
these negligences and malpractices. Chief Minister Deshmukh visited after
1 month and 10 days of the incident. That too after so many peaceful
demonstrations were organised in near by towns. The police brutally beat
these peaceful demonstrators, they even opened fire in Amravati, killing a
20 year old rickshaw driver who was shot in head. He was the only son of
the family.

To make the incident more
painful, Nagpur Commissioner and Deputy CM claim that the demonstrators
are Naxalwadi. (A late abuse term used for protestors across the
country).

Janaklal Thakur,
Chhatiisgarh Mukti Morcha (President):

The attack by the State Police
is on selected and known targets. He cited the example of people of Bastar
where national corporates with multinational companies are making the
villagers homeless and landless and forcefully snatching their lands.
There is fear there and the land of Bastar is trembling with fear and
repression.

Anybody who is resisting there
are being harassed by the police, they are being in detained in jails ,
forcibly being stayed in the camps, they are being threatened by Mauwadis,
fearing this most of the villagers have been migrated from Bastar.

Finally they had to approach
Supreme Court to seek permission for their peaceful gathering to assess
this situation. Until now 500 to 600 people have been killed in the
agitation. Media or groups who are willing to work for this people are
denied entry into the area.

Aparana Bhatt,
Advocate SC:

Children and women are easy
targets of any conflict situation and this aspect is always ignored.. No
concrete documentation of women victimisation. If cases are registered
police try to cover up the victimisation, no concrete figure of homeless
children and women. Sexual assault and violence is what women and children
have to bear.

Javed Akhtar:

This is the gathering of those
who have actually seen and tolerated the atrocities committed on them
these are the actual victims whereas I have only heard from them.

This is obvious now that if you
are Adivasi or belong to some weaker section of society you will targeted
and nobody will come to your rescue. People fail to understand these
attacks are not on a particular section of this society, but the whole
society including the attackers themselves are affected. Weaker sections
are keeping their hopes on those in power. If they give up this only hope
also, everything will be ruined.

Common people from Kashmir were
Indians, but it was the atrocities on them that pushed them to other
side.

If a person belonging to a
weaker section commits a crime he is termed a criminal and anti-national.
But if the same crime is committed by some powerful man belonging to
wealthier section of the society the crime is simply a crime not an
anti-national crime.

Till 1992, north-east and
Kashmir were the only states affected by terrorism. Why is terrorism
spreading so fast now. Why people are not ready to think what happened two
months before the Mumbai Blast? The Bombay 1992-93 pogram after the
demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Arundhati Roy:

She observed that 90% of the
advertisement in media come from the urban and corporate section. So how
can we expect them to support our cause? Judiciary an old enemy has more
unquestioned powers than anywhere in the world.

Judiciary is also supporting the
new liberal projects and you are not allowed to criticise these judgements.
Even if you have some concrete proof that a particular magistrate is
corrupt or molested some women you cannot even file a petition against
him. The Chief Justice of India has already observed that 60 to 70 % of
the judiciary is corrupt

Armed Forces Power Law gives the
power to kill some one on suspicion.

45000 to 78000 people killed in
Kashmir, around 10,000 disappeared

Indian agencies are funding
Islamic radical groups for their own purpose. They do not want to deal
with real protest.

Parliament was attacked on 13th
December 2001. 5 dead-bodies were found and deputy PM claimed that since
these 5 deadbodies looked like Pakistany and he claimed of Pakistan
involvement. On false evidence they tried to start the nuclear war with
Pakistan, 5 Lakh thousands of troops were deployed at the border, and ten
thousand crore rupees were spent on this. Many soldiers died in
mobilisation practice. All on false evidence. Worse than a fascist
dictator is a fascist democrat. That is Narendra Modi

Indian Democracy is a scam.
Today Orissa that is home to 20% bauxite resources of the world is a scam
of unbelievable greed and protestors are being killed not just by police
bullets but also by wealthy NGOs.

How can you talk about a fair
election in Kashmir when 7,00,000 troops have been deployed there? Even
traffic issues are sorted out using AK47s!

The real challenge before us is
how do we resist ? through non-violent Gandhian protest when Narendra Modi
abuses this mode of protest ? Or through armed struggle ? we need to not
simply mobilise against atrocities but also struggle and fight against the
entire gamunt of injustice being perpetrated under the garb of Indian
Democracy.

About us

For over 15 years, CJP has stood for the defence of rights and dignity of the voiceless and most marginalized sections of Indian society. Bringing alive the values of individual and collective freedoms and dignities enshrined in the Indian Constitution and its Preamble, CJP has stood for equality, dignity and non-discrimination of all Indians. We have intervened in the courts to ensure accountability of persons in power and in high office. Justice, we believe, is a prerequisite for lasting peace and social harmony ...read more